Your Hand Puppets Are You

Here are one hundred and one puppets for you. The list begins with a
handkerchief puppet that you can make with a twist of the wrist, and ends with
a modern version of the giant and elaborate puppets of Osaka, Japan. Some of
the ideas are brand-new; some are as old as history. If you were to construct
and operate them all, you could consider yourself a master puppeteer. On the
other hand, you will come to know, as every good puppeteer does, that the
simplest hand puppet is often the best.

There are plays too, and designs for stages and props, suggestions on
performance, and detailed instructions on the use of materials. Choose a puppet,
gather your materials, and begin. Watch your puppet take life under your
hands. Slip him on, turn him this way and that, cause him to speak, to laugh,
to think - he will delight you; he might even surprise you.

The famous lady writer, George Sand, was a hand puppet fan. "Her feeling was that
when she thrust her hand into the empty skirt of the inanimate puppet it became
alive with her soul in its body, the operator and the puppet completely
one."

It's true. Your hand puppets will lead you into a new and wondrous world from
which you will not - cannot escape. It is, after all, the world of yourself.